Hollyhocks and cabbages, roses and runner beans: the English cottage garden combines beauty and utility, pride and productivity. Gardens did not just appeal to the senses, however: they played a philosophical and moral role in society, and thus in our social history.  Meer

Artificiality was the fashion of the age, with clipped and twining plants vying for space with brightly painted woodwork and patterned beds. Renaissance discoveries reared their heads in royal gardens, where gilded and painted heraldic figures mingled with fantastical sundials and glittering fountains.  Meer

Originating in Europe, garden gnomes made the leap across the channel in the nineteenth century, where they were welcomed warmly by wealthy Brits who saw them as the must-have garden accessory.  Meer

Topiary, the art of creating sculpture in clipped plants, originated with the Romans and experienced periods of popularity during the Renaissance and Jacobean eras.  Meer

The suburban garden has introduced millions to the hobby of gardening, and here, for the first time, is the story of Britain’s most numerous, and most beloved, type of garden.  Meer

More popular now than ever, the allotment is part of the fabric of British life. This is the ideal story of this phenomenon by the subject’s leading historian.  Meer

In 1941 Lord Woolton, Minister for Food, was determined that the Garden Front would save England: 'Dig for Victory' was the slogan, digging for dinner the reality.  Meer

Produced by the Ministry of Agriculture, the "Allotment and Garden Guides" were issued monthly throughout 1945. Aimed at the amateur gardener, they were to be the final rallying call in the wartime campaign to Dig for Victory.  Meer

A quirky look at some of the most unusual garden animals ever kept in Britain, from crocodiles to wombats  Meer

An entertaining history of the role of women in the garden, from Tudor queens to peasant herb wives  Meer